Reading Response:
Jessica Daniel, a detective, has received a new case: a person has been murdered inside their own home, with all the windows and doors locked from the inside. As more bodies are found in the victim's own homes, Jessica learns to focus on her physical surrounding versus concentrating on how the killer got in and who they could be. This book, Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson, stresses the importance of being aware and paying attention to one's surroundings.The first example of how the book stresses the importance of paying attention to one's surrounding is on page 178 of the book, when a friend of a friend shows Jessica how easy it is to divert one's attention from the important details. When Jessica first meets this person what she notices most prominently about him is the fact that he is wearing two watches and odd shoes. But later he proves that the most important thing that she did not notice was how he preformed a seemingly impossible magic trick. He then gives her advice, " I do know that with anything that looks impossible, the obvious answer is almost certainly the correct one." What this means is that Jessica has been overthinking how the murderer got in while the answer is quite simple. She is missing all the obvious clues that are hidden in her surroundings.
Another example of paying attention to one's surroundings is on page 220 when Jessica chooses to double check a persons background and accidentally finds another lead that unravels the whole murder case. Because Jessica was so thourough in checking the people in the background that were still somehow related to the murder, she found an important clue. If she had not paid attention to the minor details, she may not have solved the mystery. "Jessica felt there was something important still left to be said." By not backing down and being persistent on working on the minor details, she manages to find a large piece of the puzzle.
The final example of the importance of paying attention is on page 278 when Jessica chooses to follow a lead on a hunch. Previously, Jessica talked to the families of the murdered people, she noticed that in two of the homes, there was a robbery, and in another, someone put glue on the locks. " One of (the kids) put glue in the front-door lock one night. We had to climb out a window." She double checks the lead and remembers the advice that she was given earlier. She realizes how easy it would be to enter and then lock the house from the outside after murdering the people if you have an extra set of keys. She finds the locksmith and consequentially finds the murderer.
In conclusion, the detective novel, Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson, displays the importance of paying close attention to details by showing us how small things aid Jessica Daniel in solving the murder case.
Stasya, this is a really great, original response and outlook on this book. You wrote it sort of like a detective, and I really liked how you incorporated your thoughts with evidence and mixed them together and told it like a story.
ReplyDeleteWhen reading you're response, I liked that your tone of voice was spoken as if you were a detective yourself, and you were solving the mystery with Jessica. I also thought you had a nice choice of evidence with quotes to help backup your statements. I also agree with both you and what you believe the message of the book is; sometimes the answers to questions that may seem extremely challenging, are actually right in front of you, but you don't notice because there are so many possibilities. As an overachiever, I often stress over the most simplest things that really shouldn't make you get frustrated over. Just like Jessica, I often don't notice the answer until I calm down and backtrack though what I know. Overall I think your perspective in writing this response was very unique and entertaining. Nice job!
ReplyDelete